This is what an epic should be. There is majesty & mystique in every scene, ancient wisdom in every line, eternal truth in every relationship. It just cements the fact that every story has already been told, & we are just re-telling the tales, with a few twists, some new scenery, & some minor details.

I am taking on the subject of Babylonian Civilization this summer. To get started, I'm rereading the oldest story ever written by humans. How old? Try 4000 years old. Not only is it the oldest, but it is written in a dead language and it was buried for a couple thousand years before some British archaeologists dug it up in the Iraqi desert in the mid 1800's. It took another 50 years before it was translated into English.

I've read an adaptation of Gilgamesh before but never a scholarly translation that was directly translated from the cuneiform tablets. Andrew George's translation is considered one of the standards and I found it very readable even though there are gaps here and there to represent where the tablets are broken. In a sense, this made the work of translation more apparent and interesting. In fact, there is a whole system in place that emphasizes when and where certainty and speculation are used in the story. Italics and brackets are all over the place, but once you figure out the code, it adds a lot to the reading experience.

In addition to the standard Gilgamesh tablets, there are older Sumerian tablets that are translated and included in this Penguin edition. The Sumerian tablets are older but translated from Sumerian and not Akkadian. They tend to be less standardized, with characters switching names or roles here and there. The notes help sort all this out. The introduction is also very interesting and helps lay some crucial groundwork for placing this story in context to the history of the Babylonian Empire.

If you are like me and love Homer and all the other early epics you will want to familiarize yourself with this most excellent story. Just as interesting is the story of its discovery. Check out The Buried Book by David Damrosch to learn more about that. If you want to learn more about the ancient history of the area in audio format, check out Dan Carlin's podcast "Hardcore History -King of Kings" series. ( )

I read the entire book in undergrad, very quickly and delightedly - but didn't get to the introduction! I recently got the audiobook and got to it. I usually don't include audiobooks on here but I figured if I didn't with this, I'd never get it off my list. I definitely recommend this translation, it's the best one I've seen (and I've seen a LOT a lot). I also really recommend the audiobook of this translation, it's incredibly well done, very empowering but also soothing. ( )

When at last they arrived, Gilgameshsaid to Urshanabi, 'This isthe wall of Uruk, which no city on earth can equal.See how its ramparts gleam like copper in the sun.Climb the stone staircase, more ancient than the mind can imagine,approach the Eanna Temple, sacred to Ishtar,a temple no king has equalled in size and beauty,walk on the wall of Uruk, follow its coursearound the city, inspect its mighty foundations,examine its brickwork, how masterfully it is built,observe the land it encloses: the palm trees, the gardens,the orchards, the glorious palaces and temples, the shopsand marketplaces, the houses, the public squares'.

This work is any complete, unabridged translation of the Standard Version of The Epic of Gilgamesh. To quote the FAQ on combining - "A work brings together all different copies of a book, regardless of edition, title variation, or language." Translations of the Old Babylonian Versions should remain separate, as should translations of the early Sumerian Gilgamesh stories and poems from which the epic came to be. Based on currently accepted LibraryThing convention, the Norton Critical Edition is treated as a separate work, ostensibly due to the extensive additional, original material included.

This edition provides a prose rendering of The Epic of Gilgamesh, the cycle of poems preserved on clay tablets surviving from ancient Mesopotamia of the third mi llennium B.C. One of the best and most important pieces of epic poetry from human history, predating even Homer's Iliad by roughly 1,500 years, the Gilgamesh epic tells of the various adventures of that hero-king, including his quest for immortality, and an account of a great flood similar in many details to the Old Testament's story of Noah. The translator also provides an interesting and useful introduction explaining much about the historical context of the poem and the archeological discovery of th e tablets.

A great king, strong as the stars in Heaven. Enkidu, a wild and mighty hero, is created by the gods to challenge the arrogant King Gilgamesh. But instead of killing each other, the two become friends. Travelling together to the Cedar Forest, they fight and slay the evil monster Humbaba. But when Enkidu is killed, his death haunts and breaks the mighty Gilgamesh. Terrified of mortality, he resolves to find the secret of eternal life.… (more)